Kean University will continue to face scrutiny by a national college commission after the New Jersey school failed to fully satisfy monitors reviewing its accreditation status.

“This is a very serious development,” said James Castiglione, president of the Kean Federation of Teachers, a faculty union that is in a bitter fight with university president Dawood Farahi.

On Friday, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education determined that Kean had made progress in its efforts to overcome deficiencies with its accreditation. ”Some work has been done that is very positive, but there is more that needs to be done,” said commission spokesman Richard Pokrass.

The commission is a membership organization of 523 colleges, nearly half of them in New Jersey and New York. Last June, it gave Kean a warning for weaknesses in its assessment of intuitional policies and student learning.

The university of 18,956 students has until June 2013 to correct the deficiencies, and administrators submitted a follow-up report of its progress by the deadline last month.
Monitors from the commission surveyed the school during a two-day visit Friday and found that the school will likely remain under a warning status.

“It is important to note the progress that we have made,” said Jeffrey Toney, the school’s vice president of academic affairs, in an email to faculty Friday. “I am confident that our ongoing efforts on assessment will further enhance student learning.”

The commission will make its final determination of Kean’s accreditation status in June.

Last week, the commission also found weaknesses in the school’s assessment of general education and ethical standards. The last category was added in light of questions surrounding Farahi’s qualifications.

An internal investigation in February found that Farahi’s resumes included several inconsistencies, including academic articles that were not actually published. The school’s president since 2003, Farahi apologized for the errors and the board voted to retain him in February.

“The allegations that have been made have been a bit out of the ordinary,” Pokrass said.

A Kean spokesman said that the school is complying with the additional monitoring areas, and that the ethical standards category was an expected addition because of the controversy surrounding Farahi’s qualifications.